


The Railway Project: The Steam Saga

by Gumboi



Series: The Railway Project [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: 1960s, 1980s, Action/Adventure, Army, Eventual Romance, Gen, Manga & Anime, Modern Era, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Trains, Transformation, Victorian
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:15:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22339153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gumboi/pseuds/Gumboi
Summary: In the mid Victorian era of Great Britain a lonely peasant girl named Bettie is captured by a mysterious team of scientists and promised freedom if she obliges with their demands, little does she know that the experiments they perform will grant her phenomenal power that not only morphs her into part steam locomotive, but also comes packaged with unpredictable results including anti-ageing and the ability to passively spread her powers. After breaking free from the lab in a mad frenzy, Bettie is now pursued heavily by the scientists that captured her, can she overcome all odds and win her freedom?
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Series: The Railway Project [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1609036
Kudos: 1





	The Railway Project: The Steam Saga

**Author's Note:**

> Hello dearest reader, if you've somehow found this story then you're in for a bit of a ride (no pun intended). This is a work of fiction that's been in the works through multiple drafts and just the thoughts in my head for about a year and a half now, and as you can see I finally bit the bullet and wrote the damn thing out in full, and I hope you enjoy the characters and story as much as i do, as both railways and story-writing are a massive passion of mine. You don't have to be a train lover to get the most out of the story, as the characters all evolve and adapt over time in a way that is totally unique to their individual selves, you'll learn a lot about their motifs and beliefs, hell, even I learned a thing or two while writing this story, that for the longest time existed purely in the confines of my head. The entire plot and characters themselves are definitely anime and manga inspired to say the least, and certain themes or tropes will definitely crop up along the way that'll make you think "Hey, I feel like I've seen something like this before in an anime I watched a while ago". Chances are you did, and those jokes/tropes/themes are now appearing in this novel too. 
> 
> This is the first part of a four part saga and I aim to publish all four of the stories here, with that being said, I hope you enjoy this somewhat weird and wonderful journey!

A pair of brightly coloured crystals twinkled brilliantly in the palm of Cyrus’ hand, he juggled them from hand to hand and chuckled to himself occasionally as he fixed his somewhat scary gaze on their unique auras. Cyrus was obsessed with artefacts known as ‘braveheart gems’ and had searched far and wide to acquire items such as these for his own, not because they were nice to look at or looked good on a shelf, but because they held abilities and powers that could completely transform a human being and bring out their maximum potential. This was something Cyrus was interested in, as aside from conducting scientific research like the public believed he did, he was also finding ways to build a legion of superhuman individuals who would hold the power to manipulate and control others with their sheer destructive abilities. 

The pair of gems shared similar appearances but differed in colour, on the left of Cyrus’ hand sat a glittery blue gem known as the ‘Delta Gem’. The Delta gem held the power to fuse an individual with another entity be it living or just an object, but the catch with the Delta gem was that it’s selection was somewhat random so the user could end up being fused with something insignificant like a teapot, but also had the chance of holding the abilities of a fierce lion, given that a lion was in close proximity of the user when the gem was placed within the person in question. The gem in the right of Cyrus’ hand glowed with a sharp and aggressive red aura, this was the ‘Zeta Gem’. The Zeta gem was less fast acting in terms of activation, it’s powers taking effect 6 weeks from initial placement in the user’s body and overall being less strenuous on the user’s health and well-being. The Zeta gem held the same powers as the Delta gem but with a twist, that twist being that the subject in question actually held the option to select and change their fusion entity at any given moment after the powers of the gem had taken hold of the user’s body. A difficult choice for those not faint of heart, and fortunately for Cyrus he wasn't faint of heart, and willing to do whatever it took to harness and control the power of the gems for his own devilish deeds. 

For the mid nineteenth century this was an absolute breakthrough in discovery however, and Cyrus was absolutely going to take full credit for the uncovering of the gems in the southwest of England, a location he thought at first was a little odd, but soon realised it made logical sense as they were found more specifically on a Cornish beach, which indicated that they possibly travelled to England overseas with the current of the ocean. The coach ride back to East London from Cornwall was a long one so Cyrus took the opportunity to examine the gems more closely, and pulled a golden magnifying glass with several adjusting functions from his grey lab coat pocket, he ran his fingers through his short black spiky hair before taking a closer look at the Delta gem. 

“Absolutely incredible,” he remarked while looking at the Delta gem through the magnifying glass on its most magnified setting, his cold and spiteful eyes full of excitement and confusion at the same time. As the bumpy horse drawn coach ride continued, Cyrus soon came to the realisation that it was better to observe the gems when he was back at his lab in East London as he would actually be able to concentrate on the object without being thrown around the inside of a coach in a pinball like fashion, for the roads between London and Cornwall were bumpy and unforgiving to even the most well built of horse drawn vehicles. 

“We really should’ve just taken the train sir,” one of Cyrus’ lab assistants piped up. 

“And pay those ridiculous prices for a mediocre at best service? Don’t be absurd!” Cyrus replied in a slightly annoyed tone. While Cyrus was certainly one of the more affluent individuals living in east London, he liked to think he was savvy with his money and only ever looked for the best service if he could find it. While his private horse drawn coach wasn't the most comfortable ride in the world it certainly saved him a pretty penny, so it was a win in his eyes. London was rapidly approaching and Cyrus couldn’t wait to return to his lab and finally start conducting research on his discovery, the moment had been creeping up on him and irritating him like a bad itch and the sooner Cyrus could make his plans a reality the better, he wanted to show the people what true power looked like. 

Upon arrival at his London based laboratory, Cyrus stepped out of his Coach to be met by his number one lab assistant, Cassidy. Cassidy was a tall elegant girl in her mid 20’s with an hourglass figure, she wore a lab coat similar to Cyrus’ and also wore spectacles. Her deep red hair was the main point of interest for most people that met her face to face and was something she was equally proud of, she felt like it gave her the right to feel unique and powerful and above all the other lab workers, sometimes even Cyrus himself if she was feeling a certain way. Cassidy examined the gems in Cyrus’ hands before addressing him directly. 

“I take it your little ‘business trip’ was successful?” Cassidy questioned as she looked back at Cyrus with a smirk, Cyrus looked back at Cassidy with the same sort of smirk. 

“Indeed, we made the trip down to Cornwall to get what we came for, a very long and hard trip both going to the south and back, but overall pleased yes. Do me a favour and have these gems stored immediately, I'll examine them later,” Cyrus explained hastily to Cassidy as he started removing his lab coat and heading towards the front doors of his lab with a brisk walk. Time wasn’t going to wait for him to conduct his research and nor were his lab workers, eager to see what kind of hellish stunt he was going to pull now that he possessed the power of not one, but two of the Braveheart gems. 

Cyrus advanced quickly through the main research room of his lab, this was the place where all the experiments that the general public knew about were carried out, simple harmless experiments like changing the growth time of plants and developing new medicines. The room itself seemed fairly harmless and well kept, the white tiled walls were clean of any contaminants and plants and other wildlife were kept in small vials on a variety of shelves littered around the room. In the centre of the space laid an iron table, this was where Cyrus conducted most of his ambitious and most well known breakthroughs such as producing medicine that could save lives from even the worst diseases, but this was all simply a cover up, for he had much darker and more ruthless intentions on his mind. As Cyrus advanced further through the brightly lit lab, he eventually reached a large iron door, to which he unbolted a heavy duty lock, looked around briefly to make sure that nobody besides his staff team were present, and finally stepped through the door, making sure to close it behind him and lock it once more. 

A dimly lit stone staircase was what followed after the large, iron, vault-like door. Cyrus quickly lit an oil lamp sitting flush in a recess in the wall to his right, and began the descent into the back passages of the laboratory. The stairway would be pitch black without the oil lamp and this only made the atmosphere even more disturbing and unsettling, but Cyrus was used to this as this was after all his domain, the very place where all his secret horrific acts took place. Upon opening a smaller wooden door at the foot of the damp and dark staircase, a room opened up before him where the true extent of his crimes were revealed. 

Countless rows of cages laid before Cyrus on both his left and his right, and these cages ran parallel to each other for around one hundred metres before opening up into a space at the end of the room that housed a surgery table and shelves filled with countless tools used to access the inner confines of the human body. It was truly a sight that only people like Cyrus himself took pleasure in, as he was willing to try nearly everything to completely ruin how the country was run so he could take it for himself and create his version of a ‘perfect’ society. Each cage in the room held an even darker secret however, as they were filled with the unfortunate victims of Cyrus’ several attempts at creating his ideal soldiers, half-cat half-human people seemed to be the trend with the cage occupants, as cat DNA was very easy to ‘splice’ with a human’s to create the perfect hybrid. But Cyrus had tried to mess with this process too by introducing slightly more ambitious and dangerous animals to the splicing process like tigers, bears, lions, bobcats and wolves. Although all of these test subjects were simply homeless people pulled from the slums and underground tunnels of central industrial London, they too had lives and were certainly much happier simply existing as they were, not one of them had asked or pleaded for this kind of emotional and physical torment and turmoil that Cyrus was forcing onto them so much. But Cyrus didn’t care one bit, not even their desperate screams and cries for help could quell his tyrannic pursuit to cause more pain and suffering in the quest for his own happiness and fulfilment, he felt that if he wanted to succeed he would need to cause some serious casualties on the way, those casualties being his failed test subjects who still desperately hoped that one day he would free them, instead of testing countless traumatic experiments on them over and over while being fed the absolute minimum amount of food possible. Hope didn’t appear often in this pit of darkness and dismay, but none of the unfortunate test subjects were willing to give up hope just yet. 

As Cyrus walked down the corridor lined with cages to the open operating space at the end of the gigantic room, the test subjects cat and dog like ears pricked up and adjusted their angle with every step that he took, some tried to call out to him for freedom and mercy, others tried to reach through the bars to grab him and a few even rattled the bars on their sturdy cages with force, as a way to almost taunt Cyrus into thinking that one day his day of misfortune would come too. Cyrus however tried his best to simply ignore and dismiss them all as he finally made it to the operation theatre to rendezvous with the two guards who kept the hideous torture room on lock-down. First he cleared his throat, then spoke in a professional and upright manner. 

“Good afternoon Harry and Clive, I hope that you are both well,” he said as he looked from one of the stoic gentlemen to the other. They looked at each other and then back at Cyrus as he continued to talk. 

“I have secured ownership of the two gems required to finally make my plan come to fruition, but now i require the most important part,” he paused once more. “I need another homeless individual from the slums or the underground, whichever is easier to pinch someone from, so I may have them returned here, thrown on this operating table and converted into my first successful super soldier. I trust that you two with your combined manpower will be able to achieve this task” 

The pair of mountain like men that stood before Cyrus looked at each-other once more and then back at Cyrus. 

“Any preference for the test subject chief?” Clive questioned. 

“Preferably in an okay condition, not too beaten up or weakened, we can’t have our most powerful subject not able to throw a single punch now can we? But also keep in mind that don’t go for one that’s overly physically capable, as we equally can’t have them overpowering both of you, or being able to escape, is that clear?” Cyrus replied to the pair of giants. 

“Understood boss, we’ll grab our stuff,” Harry responded confidently as he and Clive began walking towards the exit of the room at the far end where Cyrus had previously walked in not five minutes ago. Near this exit hung some rope and small baton like weapons, obviously used for harming and capturing a target if the situation required it. The captives in their cages caused a ruckus once more, to which Cyrus immediately silenced them with the brandishing of a meat clever from the operating table.

“Oh, and boys?” Cyrus called from the other end of the room. Harry and Clive turned around again in acknowledgement. 

“Don’t let me down now, try to get a real looker if you can, as he or she is going to be the face of a nation!” he said in an almost frightening and psychotic tone as a grim smile eked across his face. Harry and Clive turned to the exit once more, and left the facility without a word spoken between them, or to Cyrus. 


End file.
